Meme from Vissidarte27

She gave me five words/topics to talk about. Comment and I'll give you five words as well.

Littl'un
The light of my life, and currently in bed with the flu, poor little thing.  I never imagined that being a parent could be quite as rich an experience as it has been, and wouldn't trade it for anything.  My only regret is that we only managed to have one, but if we were going to be limited in numbers, we certainly got the right one first time!

Mezzo
What I sing, despite having good high notes :D  In fact, to ME there was never any doubt I was a mezzo (once I got past the initial idea that I would never sing Tosca, The Countess, or Desdemona). But it took a lot of years for the "are you SURE you're not a soprano?" thing to die down, even though it was abundantly clear that my strength was really in the middle-lying part of the voice.  Of course, once I did put the whole voice together, I started getting hired for contralto work (and still do get a lot of requests to sing low, plummy roles). I'm no more a contralto than I am a soprano, but then again, a mezzo really does have to "do it all":   sing high, sing low, and everything in the middle. Usually while carrying lots of props :D

Gown hunting
I don't so much "hunt for gowns" as trip over them... usually when I DON'T actually need them!  The trick to finding great gowns at a discount is to make sure to ALWAYS check the sale rails and being willing to spend the money on them when you find them rather than waiting until you need one.   I'm lucky in that we have a pretty good Loehmanns, Talbots Outlet, Saks OFf 5th and Nieman Marcus outlets in the area, so I have places to look for high end stuff at good prices.

Teaching
Rewarding, frustrating, what I always planned to do (long before I decided to turn performer) and what keeps me grounded, no matter how much performing I'm doing.  I think I'm a better teacher now than I ever have been - as my own technique has grown, I've only gained in greater knowledge to share, and my passion for communicating that which we can neither see, nor hear for ourselves has continued to grow as well.  It's frustrating when working wtih students who just don't want to put in the effort and really work, but getting a student who "gets" it is one of the great joys - both in terms of watching their progress, and just having fun sharing it!

Fav drink
Hmmm...  I used to be a Diet Coke junkie but, while I still drink it occasionally, these days I most enjoy good coffee or filtered water. Alcoholic?  Used to love wine until I had Littl'un and started reacting to it with migraines, so now am limited to beer and spirits. Love Blue Moon, Kennebunkport Blueberry, Killians Red, Sam Adams Summer Ale and Cherry Wheat for beers.  Spirits are usually based around gin - Bombay Sapphire and tonic or bitter lemon are teh yum. I also harbour a secret guilty passion for frozen strawberry margaritas - yep, the totally cheezy California Tex-mex kind. Slushees for grownups :D


The washing machine has been restored!!

WHEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!

And, because 2 years I had the sense to buy the extended warrantee (even though it meant I had to comprpomise and buy the slightly-less-nice, slight cheaper machine to stay within our budget), today didn't cost me a bean. That warrantee has now just paid for itself (and then some). I guess in this disposable consumer society, it's the way we have to think (which I abhor in principle, but it's certainly saved my ass this time).

Props to Lowes product care: they did exactly what they said they'd do without a quibble (and with no extra charge to me). SCORE!!

Feast & Film night

Heading out to our friends tonight (contracter+family - could we have FOUND a better person to work on our house 2 years ago??!). Their house is bigger and they have a widescreen tv, so we usually wind up over there rather than at our place.

Usually they smoke/bbq something and we bring dessert - tonight, however we're doing the cooking:

All from scratch except for the tikka paste (pure laziiness - we had a jar and it's just easier than mixing it up) and our favorite spice mix for chole (which just happens to come packaged)

Tarkha dahl
Roast eggplant curry
Chole curry (chickpeas)
Grilled chicken tikka (we're taking it over pre-marinated and will do the actual grilling over there)
Home made cardamom Kulfi
Basmati
Naan

::dies of TEH YUM::
 


Garden stuff

This is a duplicate of my post at Casual Gardeners (come on over and  join if you're interested!!), but for those who may not read there but lived through the summer of 2007 with me:

Given that the master plan was initiated to 1 get rid of the jungle-growth and 2. cover the $&*!_#^!@ disgusting chainlink, we're not doing too badly. Maybe two more years? There are a few slow growers in the mix (ie some wisteria), and my guess is that New Dawn (the biggest rose along the fences) will hit her stride in her third year next year, I'm hoping we're on the way. Of course, now that I'm started, there's soooo much more I want to do than only clearing the site and hiding the fence, but it's still kind of neat to look back at where we started :D ( Collapse )



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Veggie bed


Peonies and roses going nuts








Whoosh

- raised bed, fully assembled.
- raised bed, filled (something like 30 bags of the compost we collected last month)
- raised bed, planted (2 roma tomatoes, 2 beefsteak, 5 different kinds of peppers/chills, two summer squash, some sugarsnap peas)
- raised bed, mulched (2 big bags of the stuff from last month)

That is IT for me today - I'm knackered!
  • Current Mood
    tired tired

I present to you....

In the middle of NOWHERE, Southwest Virginia (and I mean NOwhere - once you get outside the NoVa DC 'burbs VA  might as well be rural Tennessee), high on a hill above the winding road....

FOAMHENGE





  • Current Mood
    amused amused

Great new recipe!

I found some rather fun recipe books at the dollar store over Easter (I think they may be a British line of cookbooks that used to be sold in one of the higher-end supermarkets there - I'm not 100% sure, but the recipes call for European ingredients and use Euro names, and the typefaces/picture styles look familiar...)

In any case, the Italian Cooking one had recipe for biscotti, which I made yesterday.  EASY PEASY and ooohhhhhh so good.  To fully dry them out, I left them in the oven after I had switched it off,and they were  rock hard (ie perfect!) ; if you like them a little less crunchy, just take them out right away.

I didn't have any nuts so left them out; adjust nutritional info accordingly if you add them.

Ingredients:
2c flour
3/4 c cocoa powder
1tsp bicarbonate of soda (baking soda)
1 c sugar
2 eggs (mine were small and in fact I needed three, so ymmv)
1 egg yolk for glaze (I didn't bother and didn't miss it)

1. Sift together flour, cocoa powder and baking soda into a bowl. Make a well in the center of the flour mixture, add sugar, nuts (if you use them), and eggs, and mix well to form a soft dought.

2.  Turn dough onto a lightly floured surface adn knead until smooth. Divide into four and roll (or press) each section into a loaf that is approx 1/4" high and 1-1/2" wide.

3.  Place strips on baking tray lined with nonstick parchment/liner (I used a nonstick pan - it was fine).   Glaze with egg yolk (or not) and bake at 350 for 30 minutes or until lightly browned.  Cut strips, separate, return to ove and bake for 10 minutes longer or until dry.

Makes ~35 biscotti

Nutrional info (as calculated by Sparkpeople's recipe calculator)

 
 Calories 58.7
  Total Fat 0.8 g
      Saturated Fat 0.3 g
      Polyunsaturated Fat 0.1 g
      Monounsaturated Fat 0.3 g
  Cholesterol 18.2 mg
  Sodium 5.9 mg
  Potassium 41.0 mg
  Total Carbohydrate 12.2 g
      Dietary Fiber 0.8 g
      Sugars 5.8 g
  Protein 1.6 g


Meme from Tigerlily293

Another 5 things meme... but these are fun :)

You comment to this post, and I list five things I associate with you. They might make sense or they might be totally random — then you post that list, with your commentary, to your lj. I and other people get our lists from you, and the meme merrily perpetuates itself.

1.Motherhood
Frustrating, exhausting, time-consuming, exhilirating, satisfying and possibly the best role in which I've ever been cast.  I never thought of myself as the maternal type and for most of my 20s didn't think I wanted kids, but when the time was right I knew that I really did.  The original plan had been to have two - I'm an only child of only-children parents, and didn't want to pass that on -  and I had wanted to do it RIGHT away after Littl'un was born since I was still mentally in the baby groove, but a high-maintenance and difficult pregnancy and difficult delivery meant I was told I HAD to wait at least 2 years on medical grounds and by that time my thoughts had turned to "I don't know if I can do that again....", plus I was the major breadwinner at the time and given how hard #1 had been, we couldn't risk the same with #2.

No regrets of any kind, even when I'm tired and stretched in too many directions - if we were only going to have one, we got the right one, and nothing makes me happier than having her in our lives.

2.Garden
Well, we all have bellavoix  to thank for my gardening efforts - she posted some garden pictures a couple of years back and whetted my appetite to give it a try. When we had to replace the deck (the original one collapsed, so it was a necessity), we decided to build a "real" and much larger one, which inevitably led to wanting to tart up the garden and since I saw one singer successfully tending plants even while working I went for it!  It's a huge job since the (elderly) previous owner had left the yard untended for many years and we're still trying to reclaim some of the more problematic areas (made harder due to the large amount of shade where nothing except weeds wants to grow) but slowly it's taking shape and some parts are starting to look pretty good.  This summer will be the first "real" year for most of my plants, and I'm excited to see how they do, especially my roses.   We're also going to tackle a small vegetable bed this year.

3.Favorite role to sing
Of the roles I have sung, it has to be the Verdi Requiem  - nothing feels as good as that!.  Of roles that I haven't yet sung in their entirety (I"ve done large chunks - in fact, most of the each role -  in concert performances), it's a tossup between Azucena and Amneris.  Both feel yummy in my voice, and they both appeal enormously as characters.    

4.Rejection
I actually consider myself pretty lucky on this front - Over the course of my development I was told I suck, that my voice is undefinable and therefore unhireable (HA! Take that naysayers!!) and have (as have we all) sometimes been passed over for things,  but never hit the endless barrage of out-and-out rejection the way that young singers out there auditioning and yapping currently have to deal with every year.  My present unenviable situation isn't because they didn't want ME, but because the company collapsed and therefore, despite my misery at being benched so far this season, I don't feel that it's "rejection".   I always go into an audition aware that the answer can be "no", and think of it more as "they chose somebody else" rather than "the don't want ME"; it's a mental game, I guess, but it's served me well over the years since it means that even if I feel the sting of not getting something (as we all do!) I generally move on to the next thing pretty quickly; I consider it part of the job.

The best formal rejection I have ever received was from Juilliard, the year I did my conservatory rounds.  I didn't do a very goood audition (killer allergies - spring in LA - and a really, really REALLY bad pianist who made a total HASH of my aria) so didn't expect to get in, but  was amused by the letter which said, in very terse language "We will not be accepting you, however we will allow you to reapply next year" (I wish I had saved it for posterity, because it was much harsher and more pompous than that).  I didn't care a toss since I'd already been accepted to the RNCM (my first choice) and NEC, who'd phoned with a substantial scholarship offer the previous day.  

5.Tenors
Don't ever date one!  I made that mistake three times, including the last one, who was the first great love of my life and who broke my heart into a million pieces (then stomped on the bits to make sure). The only good thing about that relationship is that it's what prompted me to pursue singing and audition for conservatories, so there was a silver lining despite the tears and heartache, I guess.

Seriously, I have ALWAYS seemed to teach tenors well (I guess it's that "upside down mezzo" thing), and many - MANY - of my singer friends are tenors, including one of my best friends ever.    My mom (a talented amateur pianist who I've always joked is an opera queen in a woman's body) always loved the tenor voice, and I was raised on recordings of Bjoeling, Fleta, Schipa, di Stefano, Del Monaco and the like, so I guess I come by it honestly!